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User: jbengt

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  1. Re:Pffff... Magnitude 7? on Fault System Enables Larger Quakes In California · · Score: 1

    What kind of "heating products" are you talking about? Because the projects I've worked on located in earthquake-prone areas used essentially the same products as elsewhere, but added more bracing, additional/independent hangers for ceiling-mounted items, constrained vibration isolators, etc.

  2. Re:Be...cause... on Why Is the Internet Association Rewarding a Pro-NSA Net-Neutrality Opponent? · · Score: 1

    Is it because they're whores and will do anything for loose change? That's pretty much my standard answer for any headline in the format "Why is blank blanking?"

    Actually, in this case, TFA gives a different answer: Because McCarthy has been pushing patent reform legislation.

  3. Re:It depends on No, It's Not Always Quicker To Do Things In Memory · · Score: 1

    RTFP before you complain, it already addresses your concerns. The point is about assuming that disk write will be slower, when, in real life, some specific programs can be sped up by writing directly to disk. They mention that the OS takes care of disk buffering for you and note a lot of stuff that is happening behind the scenes in memory, especially with immutable strings in high level languages.

  4. Re:System worked, then? on On the Dangers and Potential Abuses of DNA Familial Searching · · Score: 2

    Investigative techniques used in this case are not proven and may cause enough false positives to be detrimental to serving justice against the actual perpetrators.

  5. Re:Do we want 100% crimes solved? on On the Dangers and Potential Abuses of DNA Familial Searching · · Score: 1

    they have a DNA-sample . . . from the crime-scene, for which no matches exist in police databases. Currently they have to look for him the old-fashioned way — and the sample is only useful to (in)validate the people.

    Unfortunately in this case, they did not use the sample they had to invalidate the suspect they wrongfully convicted, but instead came up with a theory on how three men assaulted and murdered the victim in her small apartment room and only one of them (the one they couldn't identify) left physical evidence.

  6. Re:Evidence indicates otherwise on California's Hot, Dry Winters Tied To Climate Change · · Score: 1

    Errr.... prices dropped because DEMAND dropped. And why did demand drop? Because consumption dropped

    Wrong . . . Prices dropped because SUPPLY rose. And why did supply rise? Because prices rose enough to make hard-to-get oil worth investing in. So, don't expect prices to stay low when fracking investments, etc. decline.

  7. Re: And still on NASA Ames Reproduces the Building Blocks of Life In Laboratory · · Score: 1

    . . . if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.

    But is not a choice of the choices you were going to decide on, so you still haven't made that decision about which choice to choose.

  8. Re:Key word: Cape Cod on The US's First Offshore Wind Farm Will Cut Local Power Prices By 40% · · Score: 1

    if they sell at the local rates of ~14cents a kwh (24 in the winter) they aren't making any money by selling power to the locals because its really 14-24cents kwh for offshore wind, there is no profit margin there.

    $0.14 per kWh has little to do with it. They are saving money because they can shut down the expensive ($0.40 to $0.50 per kWh) diesel generators that is their only current generating source. The cost of the wind power generated is well below that regardless of connecting to the mainland or not. Also, they plan to sell excess wind power to the mainland through the cable - that's wind power that would be wasted otherwise, so even at a losing rate of "~14cents a kWh", it's a gain to bottom line (assuming the cable is going to be there, anyway). If the cable to the mainland was the only valuable part of this, why wouldn't someone have financed the cable without the wind power?

  9. Re:Not so hard to reduce prices 40% when ... on The US's First Offshore Wind Farm Will Cut Local Power Prices By 40% · · Score: 1

    No, the reduction in price comes from not burning the diesel required by the generators that they currently use.

  10. Re:Just a thought... on Astronomers Find an Old-Looking Galaxy In the Early Universe · · Score: 1

    The big bang was "an expansion" of space itself, rather than an expansion of things within a space. Therefore the big bang was the center. And every point in space is at the center of expansion.

  11. Re:Missing the problem by a mile on Why We Should Stop Hiding File-Name Extensions · · Score: 1

    You miss that it isn't like that in Windows either.

    Actually, it is like the GP said: "On Windows, extensions are meaningful to the operating system." I get your point that the user and thier "trusted" programs can set what opens/runs what extensions, but the MS Windows operating system uses the extension to look up what program is associated with it and opens the file with that program.

  12. Re:File extensions? on Why We Should Stop Hiding File-Name Extensions · · Score: 1

    The filetype is now contained in the icon.

    Wrong.
    The executable assigned to open the file is "contained" in the icon.
    Even that is not always true: the wrong icon can be used intentionally by malware, and in the past I've had MS Windows mess up icon assignments.

  13. Re:100% reneweble? on Apple To Invest $2B Building Green Data Centers In Ireland and Denmark · · Score: 1

    Can you also tell me how do we renew the sun?

    I think by modifying the photon torpedoes and launching them into the interior of the sun, you can bring a dying sun back to life, but you have to watch out for neutron drift. It was described on TNG, but I can't remember the details.

  14. Re:Horribly misleading summary on Bill Nye Disses "Regular" Software Writers' Science Knowledge · · Score: 1

    . . . the climate on Earth is in no way static . .

    True

    . . . has been changing and various ways for millennia . . .

    True

    . . . and there's very little humans can do to effect[sic] it one way or the other.

    You're impressively naive.

  15. Re:Horribly misleading summary on Bill Nye Disses "Regular" Software Writers' Science Knowledge · · Score: 1

    We're talking about analyzing a few sentences that were jotted down by an interviewer, but still, Mr. Nye's attitude is not so impressive.

    Actually, almost all of the comments I've read so far are about the Slashdot summary, not the actual article. The actual quotes in the article are not quite as likely to stir up outrage as the misleading indirect quotes in the summary.

  16. Re:Good grief... on Bill Nye Disses "Regular" Software Writers' Science Knowledge · · Score: 1

    I've used code written by "software guys".

    It sucks. It is worse than suck. And to make it the ultimate suck, try telling someone with a degree in computer science that their software doesn't do what I need it to do, and so it doesn't matter how well it follows software good practices.

  17. Re:Good grief... on Bill Nye Disses "Regular" Software Writers' Science Knowledge · · Score: 1

    RTFA. It wasn't a great article, but the indirect quotes in the Slashdot summary are misleading, if not outright misquotes.

  18. Re:someone explain for the ignorant on Credit Card Fraud Could Peak In 2015 As the US Moves To EMV · · Score: 1

    i guess you are talking about physically stealing a card. that's almost almost zero percent of the problem. that requires physical theft which criminals don't want to risk for the most part.

    Bullshit. Use of lost & stolen cards is still one of the most common types of credit card fraud, even if on-line identity theft has gained ground. Not all criminals are tech-savvy.

  19. Re: Unsettling science on US Gov't To Withdraw Food Warnings About Dietary Cholesterol · · Score: 2

    The difference between science and religion is that science can admit to mistakes and change, but most religions consider themselves to be based on eternal and immutable truths.

    Nonetheless, most religions have still managed to mutate, diverge, and evolve over time, even as they declare their eternal truths. (except for maybe some of the religions that have gone extinct)

  20. Re:Here's a great idea... on DOT Warns of Dystopian Future For Transportation · · Score: 1

    More like, without roads, all work would be within walking distance, by necessity.
    Nonetheless, roads were around long before the advent of automobiles, when the only options were walking or using beasts of burden, and almost everyone walked to work.

  21. Re:Great on Staples To Buy Office Depot For $6.3 Billion · · Score: 1

    I wonder which of the stores in my neighborhood is going to close, the Office Max, or the Staples about a half a mile away?

  22. Re:Crap on Staples To Buy Office Depot For $6.3 Billion · · Score: 1

    So, last Sunday, when I needed a new mouse, I could have ordered it online and begun to work within the 15 minutes it took me to pick one up at the local Office Max?

  23. Re:Not medicine? on Testosterone Increasingly Being Used To Fight Aging In Men · · Score: 1

    But the medicine does come with warnings that it may cause men to grow breasts.

  24. Re:As a parent, which requires no testing or licen on Ask Slashdot: Pros and Cons of Homeschooling? · · Score: 2

    About 35% of people 25 to 29 have bachelors degrees. So did your pubic school fail to teach you what an average is?

  25. Re:mold? on The "Cool Brick" Can Cool Off an Entire Room Using Nothing But Water · · Score: 1

    More like 3 or 4 gallons per hour assuming a load of 3 Tons.